Upon finding out about the "gift," the alleged deadbeat donor's now-adult kids asked MSU trustees that $45K of the donation -- the amount of child support money the man admits he never paid his ex-wife -- be given to their mother.

Not gonna happen, say Sparty officials.

"That's between him and them," said Joel Ferguson, Board of Trustees chairman. "We'll keep the money. He's got to get a good lawyer. It's his dad's money. We accept the gift in the spirit of giving."

"We accept the gift in the spirit of giving?" Really? Even in this instance? Ouch.

"sounds a bit like a certain CFB coach who owes his prior employer some coin."

Yes, if Rodriguez had humped someone and if the existence of the WVU football program had been the result and if Rodriguez had donated roughly $87.7MM to U-M (the same proportion donated to MSU by Bradbury) it would be EXACTLY like that.

Has their been a legal ruling or accounting paper trail that shows the Dad still owes the mom 45 kips, or is it just the mom's side of the story?

I remember when I was growing uyp, there was a segment on the local news program called "Deadbeat Dads" where they would air a picture of the deadbeat dad and say how much they owe and list the number and age of the kids he's not helping to support. It helped quite a few mothers out in obtaining the suport they were entitled to receive.

I can't entirely blame Sparty on this one. The classy thing to do would be to pay it to the kids, but if this guy donates a cool $1 mil to the university, certainly he can afford to pay the $45k. That's probably a personal vendetta that MSU doesn't want to get in the middle of and nothing says they have to. They can't be held accountable for how every donor got their hands on every dollar.

T9, very witty post you have going on there. Would you like to disagree with what I said or would you rather just mock trolls? Feel free to do both, but I know which one you're probably leaning towards.

This is kind of a weird situation because, as the article notes, the university won't actually have the money until the donor dies, and he's not dead yet. And I'm guessing it would take a lot for a university to criticize a seven-figure donation like that, so I doubt they're going to do anything to make him change his mind. They're probably expecting this to be forgotten soon enough.

On the bright side, I bet some of you creative people here could use this as material for some fun new signs for next year's UM-MSU football game...

I shouldn't even bother with this reply, but given that you are relatively new around here...lemme catch you up.

If motivated, I could and would run 'thesaurical' and rhetorical circles around you. Not interested currently.

In addition, 'mocking of trolls' as you put it, is actually a higher order cognitive skill much like the formation of humor, inneundo, and double entendres. Good news? You are smart enough to catch on. Bad news? You don't get it.

So, a word of advice, new found 'friend' of MZone. If you want to run with the big dogs fine, thicken up your skin, sharpen your senses, and buy a dictionary.If not?Stay on the damn porch.

Maybe the author of the article wrote it mistakenly, but it does say the money was bequeathed, ie. its in his will, ie. MSU doesn't get the $$$ until he dies. No money has transferred, just the promise of money at a future date. So it seems a little silly that the son wants MSU to give him a cut of the money that they won't see for what may be a number of years.

I also see OSUrulz' point that MSU shouldn't have to do a background check on every donation to make sure the donor's kids, exwife, etc. were properly compensated before accepting a gift. To expect MSU to be the Judge, Jury, etc. and settle a clearly ugly family dispute in the role of righteous do-gooder is more than a bit of a reach. This isn't quantum leap, MSU isn't Scott Bakula, they shouldn't have to 'make right what once went wrong'. The son should be speaking to a lawyer, not the media.)

Further you can bequeath anything you want, it doesn't mean your estate will have it when you croak. I remember my fraternity offering me a membership in their exclusive high end donors club if I wrote them a check for $25K, or if I put $100K in my will for them. Many of us were reading the book "Die Broke" at the time and we deduced that we'd put it in our wills and get the fancy sports coat that came with the club, then laugh our asses off in the afterlife when the check bounced(probably from a very warm vantage point.)

Further, while I have a special level of hate for Dead Beat dads, methinks there's something in the story that we're not being told. (the pay-up-Rich-WVU-stalker-exgirlfriend episode has taught me to not take sides in ugly divorces that I'd be far better off to keep out of.)

BTW T9, I think you are coming off a little harsh. Brow-beating someone on the internet is sooooo Ohio.

if it were a gift/donation/bequethment from the Ku Klux Klan or American Nazi Party, do you think the Sparties would take it?

hell no. institutions say "no" to donations all the time, and most typically because of the source.

moosu should have at least had the sense to say: they didn't know anything & needed to look into it; or that since it's triggered upon the donors death, they'll have to consider the circumstances at the time.

instead, they showed themselves to be the cow farming craven hotel clerks they have always been.

it's the same lack of character the causes them to blow leads late in games and collapse in the last half of the season.;)

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